J Percy Priest-Stewarts Creek Ramp Nov 07

Fishing was slow on this cool foggy and then windy fall day. Eric Lawson and I landed a few cherokee bass (hybrid stripers) and some nice crappie. It was a beautiful fall day and a very interesting place to fish. I caught the first Cherokee Bass before dawn and Eric caught his about 10am. We will be back. See pictures of cherokee bass, scenery and a nice crappie caught by Eric.

Old Hickory Lake-Douglas Bend Access Dec 07

It is early December in Middle Tennessee and their is an unusual warm front caused by a high pressure system from the Gulf. The temperature is almost 70 degrees with the water temp being 54 degrees. There is light south wind and a lot of fog. Douglas Bend Access is a somewhat shallow cove with water depths being mostly less than 10 feet, but up to 20+ feet in the creek channel. I was hoping for a crappie fishing outing but struck out. I was catching a lot of drum and bluegill and one nice channel catfish. The channel catfish was caught on a large fathead minnow in the creek channel about 18 feet down in 20 feet of water. The picture does not do this 26 inch catfish justice. It was a very fat cat probably weighing in at about 8 to 9 pounds. The bluegill in the picture is a little smaller. Maybe next time I will catch a crappie.

Shovel Head Close Up - Old Hickory Lake, TN Nov 07

November 2007 Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee
Great Kayak Fishing morning in Cages Bend Campground area of Old Hickory Lake. The approaching storms stirred the fishing up a bit. Several catfish and nice crappie caught on this outing including a rare daytime flathead. I was using medium & large fathead minnows and shiners for bait.

Shearon Harris Lake, NC 2007-11-21

Went out sort of last minute. Lake temperature was 60 and weather was 75 and windy (from the Southwest). My normal baitshop was out of minnows so I went with what artificial I had, running a little low of supplies. I didn't get on the water until about 1:30 in the afternoon. A guy coming of the water showed me some great crappie that he caught on minnow and said he just went where the fishfinder located a school and bam. Unfortunately, not such luck for me. I wasn't too concerned based on time of day, bait and weather turning...I was just looking to get the boat out (been a couple months).

I hope to post soon with pix from a successful outing.

Shearon Harris Lake

Big Smallmouth Buffalo

Big Smallmouth Buffalo

Fate Sanders Marina

J Percy Priest Lake

Oct 07

Old Hickory Lake, TN Oct 07

Annual Trip, Douglas Lake, TN 2007 Sept 14-16

This year we thought we'd give Douglas Lake a try. We got a water front cabin (well, it would have been water front if lake level wasn't down 35 feet!) This year we had the 5 regulars go: Steve, Brian, Ed, Keith and Paul. We arrived early on Friday, it was a little wet on the drive but not too bad. After we got settled on a boat ramp, we launched and were ready to start the day. Then it rained hard. We were stuck in the boat with little bait and looking for the marina for licenses. We ended up calling the 800 number to get them over the phone as we couldn't easily locate the marina in the heavy rain conditions.

The first day (Friday) of fishing was fair-to-poor. We mostly tried for old stables like catfish and panfish. Caught one nice cat and quite a few decent bluegill and crappie, though not as many as we hoped. We decided to call it an early night and dry out (while also not drying out, if you know what I mean).

Later that night it cleared out and we decided to do a bit of night fishing near the TNA run ramp, which is very nice. We dropped our bait attractor lights on the other side of the lake from the ramps. Coves looked good, fish were showing on the sonar but nothin'. So shortly thereafter, we packed it in and would give it a fresh start in the morning.

The second day (Saturday) of fishing, we covered more of the main lake and into areas that were supposed to be more productive. We made the 30 minute run amid the flash of bass boats in a tournament. Again, fishing turned out to be mildly active or better said: not so good.

The third day (Sunday) of fishing, we went back first to areas covered on Saturday but then worked our way past the ramps to the North and East. We had some fun catching some monster gills off the farm silo that was protruding from the lake.

Overall Lake Score: Fair
It was a beautiful area and should have produced much more. Based on experiences on other lakes, not sure we'll be back.

Watuaga Lake, TN May 2007

Brian and I tried to meet at a lake in between our homesteads, that would appears to have some fish.

Watuaga Lake in TN was a nice lake that had some good cabin rentals, so we gave it a try. It was a hot day (in the 80s) the first day on the lake and second day was in the 60s, big difference.

We were able to pull in a few cats as well as a few nice smallmouths.

Overall lake score: good